I work for a crazy woman using her 9 cats as her control weapon. The cats live on her huge porch or in their large cages. They were nearly dead when I started two years ago. Filth I won’t sicken you with details. It took weeks to clean. Hoarding nightmare! Just like TV! She wanted me twice a week and I soon learned that wouldn’t work as there were 30-40 dishes full of flies, leftover food and cat boxes untouched. That was my job to clean the giant mess and smell she made while I wasn’t there. Florida is hot! There were tons of electrical ext. cords for broken fans and empty waterers. The job pays me $50 a week. No day off. (Yup 2021-now.)
This woman who owns the cats lives in a fantasy insisting Keanu Reeves will soon pick her up and take her away from her “dreadful" life. She is an attention seeker. She feels at age 75, that she will be discovered and become famous! So the scammers get a lot of money from her! Nothing real matters. Needless to say, I told her ten times that they are scammers! I don’t say anything anymore. I gave up.
Now she has declared, all in one week, that she has mesothelioma, et al., seizures, and two strokes that left her blind! She called an ambulance to meet her attention needs and spent 3 days in the hospital. Nothing is wrong. I want to call our aging agency for intervention. No family but her unhappy husband. Tiny example, his son and wife visited for a few days and replaced the twenty year old shower curtain covered in mold. The lady went ballistic! She cleaned it and packed it with her treasures for Keanu. The visitors left on very bad terms.
She’s been hinting and crying poverty now for some time. Saying she just can’t keep paying out all this money.
I would have left long ago but I really don’t want the cats to die and they will, I have no doubt at all. I am thinking of working free (volunteer) which will disconnect me from her at least financially. I have looked into options from adopting out to euthanasia, it seems there are none, and you will have to trust that I did all homework there.
Any suggestions?
Sometimes getting help for the animals is quicker than trying to get help for vulnerable people.
Get Adult Protective Services involved as well to alert them to this situation.
You can remain anonymous when you send the police out there, too.
A welfare check is the fastest way to get services going for people like this.
Has APS been called to alert them there is a vulnerable senior living in a hoarded situation with these animals?
Your local Agency for Aging may have some useful information/suggestions.
Good luck and bless you for caring.
Contact the Humane Society, or your County Animal Control office.
You could also contact the County or City Building and Zoning for code violations. You could contact the Fire Department for violations.
I would also contact the local Senior Center if they have a Social Worker if not contact your State Elder Abuse hotline number.
Once you have made some calls I would give notice.
This person is NOT your responsibility nor are her cats.
IMO the women should not have been released from the Hospital. Someone must of seen she was not right. Time to call APS and report a vulnerable adult. Explain she has worsened over the two years you have been working for her and explain what you found when you started. You cannot be there 24/7 for her and looks like to me she needs 24/7 care. Do not clean up before APS comes. They must see how this women lives without you. Hopefully they will call animal control. If not, you will need to.
I mean who in this day and age would work under the conditions you do for just $50 a week? I mean really? No one I know would do that, and I bet no one you know would either.
It sounds like you may be a bit of a hoarder yourself(at least with animals)so perhaps that's why you seem to tolerate more than most of us would.
Bottom line is the woman and her husband deserves better, so call APS, and the cats deserve better, so get them out of there ASAP.
Oh boy, what a crazy situation that you have found yourself in!
I don’t know what I would do other than to find good homes for the cats. It’s horribly sad to see cats living in these conditions.
The woman should be placed somewhere. Obviously, she isn’t capable of living in her home.
Best wishes to you.
I found Animal Control in that area to be very helpful and easy to work with.
If the cats are fixed, you could consider just "releasing" them BUT I would still provide food and water on the property and keep their cages open so they could return to sleep in a familiar/safe place. At least you probably won't have to deal with changing litter boxes. Cats have instincts and would probably fare better than you think if they had a little freedom.